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Why the Bulls do it
This deal, of course, forecloses the Bulls 2010 options. We’d be right at the cap in salary. So we could use our MLE, but that’s about it.

* By bailing out the Pacers from their financial woes, we likely get a pretty high lottery pick.

* Murphy and Dunleavy are competent players that both fit needs for this team and would certainly propel us into the playoffs. I’d argue they’d make us as good as Atlanta, and give us a puncher’s chance of making it out of the East. To Jerry Reinsdorf, that means significant playoff revenues.

* If I were Jerry Reinsdorf, I might want to forego locking a guy into a max contract under the current CBA, when it appears a more favorable one is going to be around the corner in 2011. From the perspective of structuring the team, it might well be better to hold off any decisions until then.

In short, this would be exactly the sort of kick the can down the road deal the Bulls made last year (and the year before that), but it might make a bit more sense than it did last year.

Why the Pacers do it
* They net a savings of up to $24M next year in salary, although $6m of that is dependent on Salmons opting out of his contract.
* Tyrus could be useful, and if not, he's gone at the end of the year.